The Nice Man Who Teaches Languages

"The Nice Man" is how my pupils referred to me in the videos I made for remote learning in the 2020-2021 pandemic. It is also a reminder to me to use the blog to celebrate other people, and to not treat everything like an intellectual argument.

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Friday, 11 April 2025

Gap Fill with a twist

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Gap fills are a favourite activity in language learning lessons. Either with words to select from a word bank, or with free choice of the w...

Sunday, 23 March 2025

Cream or ice cream or custard?

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We all know that the human brain can learn languages. We learn our first language. And if we live immersed in another language we can learn...

Sunday, 9 March 2025

The new GCSE was meant to stop rote learning in the Conversation...

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This post was originally written as we were teaching the old GCSE to Y11 and the new GCSE to Y10. I have added an update in the light of gui...

Sunday, 2 March 2025

Have we let testing Listening destroy teaching Listening?

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I once found the perfect YouTube video for doing actual Listening with my Year 10 class. It was someone complaining about how noisy slurper...

Friday, 21 February 2025

The New GCSE Photo Card

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This half term we started working on the Photo Card for the new GCSE. The textbook included it right from the first unit, at least in the a...

Sunday, 12 January 2025

One thing that costs nothing which would revitalise languages in England.

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A sure-fire way, costing no money, to revitalise and reinvigorate take up of MFL at GCSE. Do you see what this is? It's anonymous target...

Saturday, 11 January 2025

The view from the classroom

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I don't know if it is the time to be going over the old arguments about the proposals for the new GCSE. Especially as we are busy worki...

Tuesday, 31 December 2024

Omelettes versus Snowballs

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You will know from other posts, that my favourite metaphor for learning languages is the snowball. And that I have adopted Scott Thornbury...

Thursday, 14 November 2024

Working on the three types of questions for the new GCSE Speaking Exam

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Year 10 have been working on the three different types of questions for the new Speaking Exam. In this grid, they give 3 different answers ...

Saturday, 9 November 2024

When everything you've told pupils about the new GCSE comes true!

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This week, everything I have been telling pupils about the new GCSE came true. And in quietly spectacular fashion. I suppose that means I...

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